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 News from Around the Americas | October 2006 
Good Fences May Not Make Good Neighbors: Bush Cites Security
 AFP
| | A vehicle drives along the US-Mexico border fence at sunset in an area where activists opposing illegal immigration search for border crossers 08 October, 2006 near Campo, California. President George W. Bush restated his commitment to a controversial border fence with Mexico, arguing it is key to helping keep the United States safe. (AFP/David McNew) |
President George W. Bush restated his commitment to a controversial border fence with Mexico, arguing it is key to helping keep the United States safe.
The US president signed a bill October 4 to give 1.2 billion dollars to build a fence along the US-Mexico border to try to stanch the steady flow of illegal immigrants.
Bush approved the fence despite strong opposition from Mexico. Its government has warned the barrier would "damage" bilateral relations.
"We are actually building a fence. And we are building a double fence where there's a high vulnerability for people to sneak in. You can't fence a border, but you can make it easier for people with technology to enforce the border," Bush, a former governor of Texas, which shares a border with Mexico, told a news conference.
"My judgment is, if people want this country secure, we have to have a smart border. Between the process of developing now, it's a combination of fencing and technologies, UAV, sensors," Bush said.
He allowed that "it's a pretty vast part of the country down there. It's hard to enforce that border, ... so this fencing will make sense there."
Bush also made a pitch for his belief that a guest worker program would be good for the United States.
"When you have a situation where people are sneaking in to do jobs Americans aren't doing, it's also going to keep a strain on the border. And so, therefore, a temporary worker plan to me makes sense. It's a much more humane approach, by the way. It will certainly help stamp out all the illegal characters that are exploiting human beings. These coyotes who stuff people in the back of 18 wheelers for money is just, that's not in character with how this nation works."
"I think a good program that helps us enforce our border also will see to it that people are treated more humanely," Bush argued.
The 1.2 billion dollars approved by Bush fell well short of estimates to build 700 miles (1,100 kilometers) of fencing along the porous southern border, which Congress has approved.
Bush signed the bill, which also provides money to hire 1,500 new border patrol agents, at a ceremony in Arizona, where many immigrants have died over the years sneaking through a desert that can be scorching by day and cold at night.
The fence's cost has been estimated to cost up to six billion dollars, and Senate Democratic opposition leader Harry Reid put the price tag at some eight billion dollars. |
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